This invention is an accessory that can be attached to the bucket of any of a variety of heavy machinery such as bulldozers, backhoes, tractors, etc, and is used for a final grading and leveling pass.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of heavy duty earth moving equipment apparatus or tooling in general but more specifically to means of leveling and grading filling materials.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
In most types of soil surfacing work such as road construction, landscaping, parking lots and any other areas where leveling and grading of soil surfaces is needed to prepare the surface for ulterior work such as asphalting, turfing and so on, any aggregates used as filling material are moved and leveled in a first pass with standard machinery which leaves imperfections that have to be corrected manually using rakes. This is of course labor intensive and time consuming.
There exists a number of grader attachment for use in agriculture and construction alike but they usually involve the use of a shovel as the grading implement. One particular attachment as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,052 can be used as a preliminary step for preparation of a road bed but is not a finishing tool. In fact it is for unprepared soil. The prior art of record shows a number of implements that may, at first glance appear similar but all, except for Canadian patent number 2,215,318 by this inventor, lack an important feature which becomes evident in the method of operation. The present disclosure describes a new and unobvious inventive step over that prior Canadian patent that provides added functionality and is worthy of a patent.